07/19: Ahmadinejad - "It's going to be a 'hot' summer"

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<i> I *decided* because of this article's 'portent' that I should post it on it's own thread ~ Dutchman</i>




<B><center>Ahmadinejad: It's going to be a 'hot' summer

<font size=+1 color=red>In surprise Damascus visit hopes for 'defeat for the region's enemies'</font>

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Posted: July 19, 2007
8:04 p.m. Eastern


By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56765 </center>
TEL AVIV – Visiting Syria today, <font size=+0 color=purple>Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned during a press conference that this summer will be "hot" and will bring defeat for the "region's enemies." </b></font>

"We hope that the hot weather of this summer would coincide with similar victories for the region‘s peoples, and with consequent defeat for the region‘s enemies," Ahmadinejad said, standing alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Ahmadinejad was speaking after a meeting in Damascus with Assad and Hassan Nasrallah, chief of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, which last summer engaged in 34 days of confrontations with the Jewish state during which the group fired thousands of rockets into Israeli population centers.

Nasrallah made the rare appearance in Damascus after months of largely keeping a low public profile in Lebanon.

Ahmadinejad claimed unspecified "enemies of the region" have "plans to attack the interests of this region." He urges those enemies to abandon their war plans "or they would be burned by the wrath of the region's peoples."

He described Syrian-Iranian relations as "amicable, excellent and extremely deep," stating the two countries have common stands on regional issues and face common enemies.

Ibran and Syria have a military alliance. According to Israeli security officials, Iran has been supplying the Syrian military with long-range rockets capable of hitting central Israeli population centers, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.</b>


<B><font isze=+0 color=purple>Ahmadinejad's talk of a "hot summer" comes after WND last week quoted a top official from Assad's Baath party warning if Israel doesn't vacate the strategic Golan Heights by August or September, Syrian guerrillas will immediately launch "resistance operations" against the Golan's Jewish communities.</b></font>

<b><u>The Baath official said Damascus is preparing for anticipated Israeli retaliation following Syrian guerrilla attacks and for a larger war with the Jewish state in August or September</u>. He said in the opening salvo of any conflict, Syria has the capabilities of firing "hundreds" of missiles at Tel Aviv. </b>

"Syria passed repeated messages to the U.S. that we demand the return of the Golan either through negotiations or through war. <b>If the Golan is not in our hands by August or September, we will be poised to launch resistance, including raids and attacks against Jewish positions (in the Golan Heights)," the Baath official said. </b>

The Golan Heights is strategic mountainous territory looking down on Israeli population centers captured by Israel after Syria twice used the territory to attack the Jewish state.

The Baath official said a new purported guerrilla group called the Committees for the Liberation of the Golan Heights has been training and is ready to attacks against Jewish communities in the Golan in August or September.

<b>He said Syria is preparing for a war. </b>

"More and more of our units have undergone intensive trainings starting at 6 a.m. and finishing late into the evening. If the need arises, we are ready for a war," said the official.

<b>The official said Syria "learned from the Hezbollah experience last summer and we can have hundreds of missiles hitting Tel Aviv that will overwhelm Israel's anti-missile batteries."

He claimed Syria has "proof" Israel is also readying for a war.</b>

"We hear about special Israeli trainings to take Damascus. We see that Israel is re-establishing bases of the Israeli army in the Golan that are unusual and not needed except for war. We believe the Israeli government has an interest in confronting Syria to rehabilitate its image of losing to Hezbollah," he said.

He also claimed newly installed Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a former prime minister, "wants to prove he is a military expert."

He said Syrian war preparations are so specific, the Syrian government has given its officials and top contacts alternative phone numbers to key government ministries in case the Damascus phone system is knocked out during an Israeli aerial bombardment.

<b>Israel: Syrian war preparations serious </b>

<B><font size=+0 color=purple>Israeli security officials confirmed the stepped-up military presence of Syrian troops deployed along the Syrian side of the Golan Heights with strengthened forces after carrying out increased training the past few months. The security officials noted the movement of Syrian Scud missiles near the border with Israel and said Syria recently increased production of rockets and acquired missiles capable of hitting central Israeli population centers.

The Syrian army has improved its fortifications, according to the Israeli security officials, and has received modern, Russian-made anti-tank missiles similar to the missiles that devastated Israeli tanks during the last Lebanon war, causing the highest number of Israeli troop casualties during the 34 days of military confrontations. Syria also received from Russia advanced anti-aircraft missiles.</font></b>

<b>The security officials said any conflict with Syria could degenerate into a larger war involving Hezbollah along Israel's northern border and Palestinian terror groups launching attacks from Gaza in the south and the West Bank toward the center of Israel.

The officials noted Syria stepped up the pace of weapons, including rockets, being shipped from the Syrian border to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. </b>

<u>The security officials said the greatest threats Syria poses to the Jewish state are the country's missiles and rockets. They noted Syria recently test-fired two Scud-D surface-to-surface missiles, which have a range of about 250 miles, covering most Israeli territory. The officials said the Syrian missile test was coordinated with Iran and is believed to have been successful. It is not known what type of warhead the missiles had</u>.

In addition to longer-range Scuds, Syria is in possession of shorter-range missiles such as 220 millimeter and 305 millimeter rockets, some of which have been passed on to Hezbollah.

<b>Israel also has information Syria recently acquired and deployed Chinese-made C-802 missiles, which were successfully used against the Israeli navy during Israel's war against Hezbollah one year ago. The missiles were passed to Syria by Iran, Israeli security officials told WND. </b>

Israeli security officials said Syria is indeed preparing for a summer war. But they said there was an argument within the Israeli intelligence community whether the military buildup is for an attack or is meant by Syria to pressure Israel into vacating the Golan Heights. Some officials said Syria estimates the U.S. or Israel will attack Iran, and Syria will be drawn into a larger military confrontation by opening up a front against northern Israel. Also, the officials said, Syria may believe Israel will attack first and its preparations are defensive in nature.

The Israeli army is not taking any chances. The Israel Defense Forces last month reportedly carried out a mock attack on a "Syrian" village during a major exercise in the Negev. The Israeli soldiers besieged and occupied the village, designed to be similar to towns on the Syrian side of the Golan. Similar war exercises were carried out in Israel the past few months, including a mock attack on Damascus.

<b>According to security officials, recent U.S. intelligence estimates also predict a strong possibility of war between Israel and Syria in the coming months.</b>

Dennis Ross, the American Middle East envoy under the Clinton administration, said last weekend in an interview with YnetNews.com, a leading Israeli news website, he thinks "there is a risk of war" between Israel and Syria this summer.

"Nobody has made any decision (about going to war),<b> but the Syrians are positioning themselves for war," said Ross. </b>

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<B><center>Bush may attack Iran during Congress' August recess

By Patrick Buchanan | Wednesday, July 18, 2007
http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2007/07/18/opinion/columnists/doc469d349705bb2023999016.txt </center>
Is the United States provoking war with Iran, to begin while the Congress is conveniently on its August recess?</b>

One recalls that it was in August 1964, after the Republicans nominated Barry Goldwater, that the Tonkin Gulf incident occurred.

Twice it was said, on Aug. 2 and Aug. 4, North Vietnamese patrol boats had attacked the U.S. destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy in international waters. The U.S. Senate responded by voting 88 to two to authorize President Johnson to assist any Southeast Asian nation whose government was threatened by communist aggression.

The bombing of the North began, followed by the arrival of U.S. Marines. America’s war was on.

As Congress prepares for its August recess, the probability of U.S. air strikes on Iran rises with each week. A third carrier, the USS Enterprise, and its battle group is joining the Nimitz and Stennis in the largest concentration of U.S. naval power ever off the coast of Iran.

And Tonkin Gulf II may have already occurred.

In Baghdad, on July 1, Gen. Kevin J. Bergner charged that Iranians planned the January raid in Karbala, using commandos in American-style uniforms, that resulted in the death of five U.S. soldiers.

As The New York Times reports, this “marks the first time that the United States has charged that Iranian officials have helped plan operations against American troops in Iraq and have had advance knowledge of specific attacks that have led to the death of American soldiers.”

The Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards is using Hezbollah to train Shiites to attack our soldiers and providing them with enhanced IEDs that have killed scores of U.S. troops, Bergner charged. He says we have captured a veteran Hezbollah agent and documents pointing to direct Iranian complicity in the Karbala raid.

Iran has denounced the charge as “ridiculous.” But the Senate has voted 97 to zero to censure Iran for complicity in killing the Americans.

If what Bergner alleges is true, President Bush has not only the right but appears to have the blessing of Congress to attack Iran. And he now has the naval and air forces at hand. What is stopping him?

For it is surely not Congress, which buried a resolution last spring declaring that Bush must come to Congress before taking us into a new war in the Middle East. Congress appears to be signaling Bush: “If you want to hit Iran, you have the green light. No need to consult us.”

Is this yet another abdication by Congress of its moral and constitutional duty to decide when and whether America goes to war?

And something smells awfully fishy here.

Iran has no interest in a war with the United States, which it seems to be toying with. Iran supports the pro-American Shia regime in Baghdad. And the al-Qaida umbrella group in Iraq, which is our mortal enemy, has just warned Iran it faces terror attacks if it does not stop supporting Shiites in Iraq.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads the al-Qaida group known as the Islamic State in Iraq, says his fighters have been preparing for four years for war on Iran:

“We are giving the Persians, and especially the rulers of Iran, a two-month period to end all kinds of support for the Iraqi Shiite government and to stop direct and indirect intervention — otherwise a severe war is waiting for you,” al-Baghdadi said in a 50-minute videotape.

Al-Baghdadi also warned Arab Sunnis in the region who do business with Shiites in Iran that they were inviting assassination.

Query: If Iran’s ally, the Maliki government, is our ally, and if Iran’s enemy, al-Qaida in Iraq, is our enemy, why would Iran use the Quds Force to attack Americans and risk U.S. retaliation?

Killing Americans in Iraq is not going to defeat the United States. But it could trigger heavy U.S. retaliation, not only on the Quds Force, but on Iran’s nuclear facilities — and a war with the United States. Yet Iran’s diplomatic behavior suggests it wishes to avoid such a war.

Another explanation comes to mind. Iran is not initiating, but is responding to U.S.-inspired attacks inside Iran, in the Kurdish north, the Arab southwest and the Baluchi southeast of its country. Was Karbala an attempted kidnapping to exchange U.S. soldiers for the five Iranian “diplomats” we are holding?

Has Bush secretly authorized covert attacks inside Iran? Are U.S. and Israeli agents in Kurdistan behind the attacks across the border to provoke Iran? On July 11, Iranian troops clashed with Kurd rebels inside Iran, and the Iranians fired artillery back into Iraq.

Why is Congress going on vacation? Why are a Democratic-controlled House and Senate not asking these questions in public hearings? Why is Congress letting Bush and Vice President Cheney decide whether we launch a third war in the Middle East?

Or is Congress in on it?

Thanks Dutch

Great catch.

However -

"Iran has no interest in a war with the United States, which it seems to be toying with. Iran supports the pro-American Shia regime in Baghdad."

Huh?

Could they be any more beligerent if they tried? Here is a leader hoping for a massive world war to bring on his mahdi? Running insurgents across the border of Iraq regularly? Paying the shiites to kill American troops? Doing his d*mndest to break up the fledgling government of Iraq? They have already commited numerous acts of war.

He's prepping for a proxy war w/ Israel. I predict the Israelis will be attacked on three sides from Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas from Gaza.


Meanwhile, Al Queda and the Sunni's, as well as Iran and the Shia will keep America very busy in Iraq.


And let's not forget, the enemy would love to strike a hard blow here in America or Europe this summer.


Rage

If what Bergner alleges is true, President Bush has not only the right but appears to have the blessing of Congress to attack Iran. And he now has the naval and air forces at hand. What is stopping him?

Click to expand...

We dont have control of the Nigerian oil fields yet.. in case Iran shuts down the straight of Hormuz.. and we need the horn of Africa to route the oil ships through..

The Flying Dutchman said:

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Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads the al-Qaida group known as the Islamic State in Iraq, says his fighters have been preparing for four years for war on Iran:

“We are giving the Persians, and especially the rulers of Iran, a two-month period to end all kinds of support for the Iraqi Shiite government and to stop direct and indirect intervention — otherwise a severe war is waiting for you,” al-Baghdadi said in a 50-minute videotape.

Al-Baghdadi also warned Arab Sunnis in the region who do business with Shiites in Iran that they were inviting assassination.

Click to expand...

Well, Dutch, what I'd like to know is how does "al-Baghdadi's" statements factor into yesterday's disclosure that there is no al-Baghdadi, and no Islamic State in Iraq, either?

After al Masri, Zawahiri and OBL's intermediary was captured by our forces on 4th July last, it's been released that he admitted that al Masri and the gang "invented" the fictitious Islamic State in Iraq (even gave them a website) and invented a leader for them, too--Omar al-Baghdadi.

The captive further stated that the real operatives from the fictitious ISI are "out of towners" like maybe from Saudi and those places? They're not even Sunni.

This crowd are killing people all over the place, there's no doubt about that, but exactly WHO is posing as al-Baghdadi?

Maureen

This whole thing is so complicated. The Iranians are supporting the shiites that run the government we endorse, yet we're funding and outfitting sunni's in the south to help root out Al Q. Ron Paul was right. We have no bidness over there in the first place. Every govt. we take we replace with a govt. that bites us and the cycle starts all over.

rodeorector said:

This whole thing is so complicated. The Iranians are supporting the shiites that run the government we endorse, yet we're funding and outfitting sunni's in the south to help root out Al Q. Ron Paul was right. We have no bidness over there in the first place. Every govt. we take we replace with a govt. that bites us and the cycle starts all over.

Click to expand...

I won't even go there Padre; some things are 'unmentionable!' at least for me, they are.....

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<b><center>Revolutionary Guard Clashes with Bandits in Southeastern Iran

July 20, 2007
The Associated Press
IHT.com
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/20/africa/ME-GEN-Iran-Clashes.php </center>
TEHRAN, Iran /</b>-- Members of the elite Revolutionary Guard have clashed with "foreign-guided" bandits in southeastern Iran, killing four of them and suffering several casualties, state-run television reported Friday.

<b>The report did not provide details on the foreign power reportedly backing the bandits or specify the number of Guardsmen killed in the clashes,</b> which started Thursday morning in a mountainous area near Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The television also said several Guardsmen and bandits were wounded and were taken to local hospitals for treatment.

A Sunni Muslim militant group called Jundallah, or God's Brigade, which has been blamed for past attacks on Iranian troops, has been active in the area. Iran hanged a member of the group in February convicted of a bombing that killed 11 Guardsmen in Zahedan.

<b>Iran has also accused the United States of backing militants to destabilize the country. Tensions between Tehran and Washington are growing over allegations of Iranian involvement in attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, and over suspected covert development of nuclear weapons. Iran denies both charges.</b>

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<b><center>'Iranian-Linked Militant' Among Dozens Captured in Iraq Raids

July 20, 2007
AFP
Yahoo News!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070720/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestus </center>
BAGHDAD --</b> <u>The US military said on Friday its forces had captured an alleged Iranian-linked militant who transported deadly bombs into Iraq from Iran</u>.

In other raids across Iraq, the military said it killed three alleged militants and arrested nearly four dozen more.

<b>"The captured terrorist is suspected of facilitating the transport of weapons and personnel from Iran into Iraq,"</b> a statement said, without revealing the detainee's nationality.

The military said the detainee, who was captured in the town of Kharnabat near the restive city of Baquba northeast of Baghdad, has connections with "senior leaders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force."

<b>He is also believed to have helped transport deadly explosively-formed projectiles (EFPs), a fist-sized bomb that cuts through even heavily armoured military vehicles. </b>

<u>The US military claims such EFPs have killed hundreds of its soldiers in Iraq and are supplied to extremist groups in the country by the Qods Force, a charge Tehran denies</u>.

<b>"During the raid, coalition forces confiscated a large sum of US currency, weapons and photographs of juveniles with weapons,"</b> the statement said.

Separately, troops killed two armed men and detained 16 in a raid to capture an alleged Al-Qaeda militant south of Baghdad, the military said.

In the capital, an armed man was killed during an operation to flush militants out of targeted buildings. Ten other suspected militants were detained, all allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Four more suspected militants, two of them handling media activities in Baghdad and Baquba, were also detained in the Iraqi capital, the military said.

<b>A suspected bomb making cell member was also detained in another raid in Baghdad. </b>

In the western restive city of Ramadi, troops captured a top Al-Qaeda militant and four associates on Friday, the military said.

<b><u>The militant had recently returned from Syria</u> where he allegedly facilitated the supply of weapons to militants in Iraq, it added.</b>

Another eight militants were detained in the northern city of Mosul, where the military also said Iraqi troops captured a former regime army officer turned Al-Qaeda militant on Thursday.

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<B><center> Can Iran's nukes weather quakes?

Published: July 20, 2007 at 11:11 AM
By CLAUDE SALHANI
UPI International Editor
http://www.upi.com/International_In...analysis_can_irans_nukes_weather_quakes/5816/ </center>
WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI)</b> -- What do Japan and Iran have in common? Japan has nuclear power plants and Iran is on its way to acquiring nuclear technology. Japan is prone to powerful earthquakes, and so is Iran. This is where the similarities end.

If a similar earthquake was to hit one of Iran's nuclear facilities, the consequences could be expected to be far worse, affecting oil production in the Gulf region and sending the price of a barrel of oil skyrocketing.

When a quake measuring 6.8 as on the Richter scale struck the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant earlier this week causing radiation leakage, it raised alarm among the public and shook the government's plans to expand its nuclear power industry, both at home and as a potential export product. The only reason a real disaster was averted is largely due to Japan's extremely strict building laws.

The quake killed nine people, left more than 1,000 injured, and forced thousands out of their homes and into makeshift shelters. But the quake also revealed something far more frightening for the safety of the world at large: If Japan, with all its preparedness and its advanced technology, succumbed to such an unfortunate -- and hazardous -- accident, what would happen in the eventuality of Iran's nuclear installations being hit by a similar quake, or one even more powerful?

The earthquake that shook the seven nuclear power plants in the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa complex was designed to withstand the force of a 6.5 quake. As it turned out, the quake registered 6.8 and caused about 50 different problems at the power plant, such as a fire, nuclear material seeping into water, and -- unbelievable as it may sound -- caused more than 400 drums containing low-level radioactive waste to topple over. And due to the severity of the quake, some of the drums broke open.

And that happened in a country that takes its earthquake preparation very seriously. The architects of the plants had considered it unlikely that an earthquake would affect the plant in such a way. The Japanese have installed extremely advanced safety standards aimed to cut down possibility of accidents happening, such as the ones that were caused by the quake.

It took about two hours for firefighters to extinguish the fire that had broken out as a result of the earthquake. This was the first time a nuclear plant was hit by an earthquake in Japan. Officials the next day spoke of reports "of a leak of radioactive water from one of three reactors into the Sea of Japan."

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear-power complex, one of the world's largest nuclear plants, is run by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. With its seven reactors, it has a capacity to generate about 8,000 megawatts.

Now what would happen if the scenario was to unfold in Iran, where the building codes are not nearly as strict as those of Japan, and several of Iran's nuclear facilities are situated near highly populated urban areas?

The outcome of a tremor similar to the one that struck Japan earlier in the week, or one of a stronger magnitude in Iran, would have devastating consequences. Leakage from one of Iran's nuclear facilities would send deadly clouds of nuclear material floating over densely populated areas. The results would be catastrophic, and not only for Iran. Depending on weather conditions, the lethal and invisible clouds could find themselves drifting over parts of the Gulf states, such as Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, or possibly parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, contaminating oil facilities -- the fields, refineries and oil terminals where the oil is pumped into giant tanker ships that then transports the oil to markets in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Should one or more of the giant oil facilities, such as Saudi Arabia's installations at Abqaiq, become contaminated by nuclear fallout from one of Iran's nuclear power plants, either due to a powerful earthquake or other natural or man-made disaster, the result would be devastating, not solely on the economic level, but also the effect it would have on the heath of the area's population.

We have seen the results of what happened at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, and the devastation it took on the people living and working in the vicinity of that station. All the precautions, safety measures and goodwill in the world might not be enough to deter what happened in Japan's nuclear power plant from happening in Iran.

Under such a nightmare scenario, the price of oil would shoot up to well beyond $100 per barrel. Depending on the intensity of the accident and how much nuclear material was released into the atmosphere and how much of it drifted over the producing states, an accident of the type described here could send the oil markets spiraling out of control.

Ironically, the country that would be the hardest hit would be Iran. Having no oil refining facilities of its own, Tehran relies on third countries -- mostly India -- to refine its oil and ship it back. But in the event of a nuclear disaster in the Persian Gulf region, Iran may find itself isolated, unable to send its crude oil out of the country for refinement. And the nuclear power plants the Islamic Republic claims it is building to produce electricity would find themselves incapacitated.

Earthquakes are highly unpredictable. Constructing nuclear power plants in areas prone to earthquakes is playing with fire, literally.

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Guess I'll have to bump this thread to</center>

Ahmadinejad follows up Damascus talks with a council of war in Tehran

Ahmadinejad follows up Damascus talks with a council of war in Tehran Friday with Hizballah, Hamas and Jihadi Islami leaders

July 20, 2007, 11:13 PM (GMT+02:00)



Our Iranian and intelligence sources reveal that the Iranian president flew out of Damascus Thursday with this group saying: “I prefer cooler places but this region faces a torrid summer of victories.”
Aboard his plane were four HIzballlah leaders, Secy-Gen. Hassan Nasrallah, defense chief Imam Mughniyeh, chief of staff Ibrahim Aqil and chief of special operations Unit 1800 Hajj Khalil Harb; and Jihad Islami’s Abdallah Ramadan Shalah and operations chief Zaid Nahle.
Head of Hamas’ Damascus HQ Khaled Meshaal did not join the party flying to Tehran to avoid giving his Saudi and Egyptian friends the impression he was in Iran’s pocket. Either he flew there earlier, or else assigned a Hamas representative based in the Gulf to represent his moement at the council of war in Tehran.
As for Syria’s role, DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal that 20 high-ranking Iranian officers were on the Iran president’s flight to Damascus, headed by defense minister Mustafa Najar. They did not join Ahmadinejad’s talks with Syrian president Bashar Assad. Instead, they were driven to Syrian General Staff headquarters, where they were awaited by Syrian defense minister Gen. Hassan Turkmani, chief of staff Gen. Ali Habib and corps commanders.
Our intelligence sources believe this conference was in fact round one of the council of war which continued in Tehran Friday with Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist chiefs.
The most urgent decision facing the Iran-Syrian alliance concerns Lebanon and how far they can go to get rid of the pro-Western Siniora government in Beirut. Both Iran and Syria understand the United States and France will not stand for its ouster by military or terrorist means. But time is running out. The international tribunal is about to be installed to start hearing the Hariri assassination case and must be stopped before Assad and aides are prosecuted. Tehran and Damascus must decide quickly whether to focus on subversive action inside Lebanon or resort to diversionary tactics such as fomenting trouble against Israel on the Golan, from the Lebanese border or from Gaza.
Before Ahmadinejad and party departed Damascus Thursday night, they visited two important Shiite shrines and prayed for victory in the near future. Witnesses heard the Iranian president sobbing loudly.